Canada ransomware 2026 is no longer an abstract risk category. It is a documented, measurable problem that Canadian IT teams need to take seriously right now. Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs released its 2026 Global Threat Landscape Report in April, based on telemetry collected throughout 2025, and the Canada-specific findings are hard to set aside.
374 Canadian organizations were confirmed ransomware victims in 2025. That places Canada second only to the United States, which recorded 3,381 victims, and ahead of Germany at 291. For a country of Canada’s population and economic size, that concentration is significant. This article breaks down what the Canada ransomware 2026 report actually says, why Canadian organizations are being targeted at this level, and what IT teams should be doing right now in response.
Fortinet published two companion reports in April and May 2026: the 2026 Global Threat Landscape Report and the 2026 Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report. Together, they provide the most detailed picture available of what Canadian organizations faced in 2025 and what the threat environment looks like going into the rest of 2026.
The headline Canada ransomware 2026 number is 374 confirmed victims in 2025. Globally, FortiRecon adversary intelligence identified 7,831 confirmed ransomware victims, up from approximately 1,600 in the previous year. That is a 389 percent increase year over year, driven in large part by the availability of AI-powered crime toolkits including WormGPT, FraudGPT, and BruteForceAI.
Total cyberattacks against Canadian targets reached 17 billion in 2025, up from 13.7 billion in 2024. That is a 24 percent increase in a single year, affecting organizations of every size and sector.
The breach rate among Canadian organizations tells an equally serious story. According to Fortinet’s Skills Gap Report, 82 percent of Canadian organizations experienced at least one breach in the past year. Of those, 19 percent reported breach costs between USD $1 million and USD $2 million. At current exchange rates, that is roughly CAD $1.4 million to $2.75 million per incident.
You can review Fortinet’s full Canada ransomware 2026 report findings directly at fortinet.com/resources/reports/threat-landscape-report.
Fortinet’s analysis identifies several converging factors that explain why the Canada ransomware 2026 numbers have reached this level.
The first is the cybersecurity skills shortage. Fortinet’s Skills Gap Report found that 47 percent of Canadian IT leaders cited a lack of cybersecurity skills as a leading cause of security breaches. Organizations are managing increasingly complex infrastructure with smaller, less specialized teams. 53 percent of Canadian IT leaders said senior-level cybersecurity expertise is their most pressing hiring need, and 40 percent said they struggle to get internal approval for additional cybersecurity headcount.
The second factor driving Canada ransomware 2026 exposure is AI-enabled attacks. Cybercriminals are now using agentic AI tools to automate and accelerate every stage of an attack, from reconnaissance to exploitation. The time-to-exploit for critical vulnerabilities has dropped from 4.76 days to 24 to 48 hours. That window between a patch being released and active exploitation in the wild is now measured in hours, not weeks.
The third factor is credential exposure. Fortinet’s FortiCNAPP intelligence confirms that most confirmed cloud incidents in 2025 originated from stolen, exposed, or misused credentials rather than infrastructure exploitation. 4.62 billion stealer logs were traded or shared on the dark web in 2025, a 79 percent increase over 2024. Canadian organizations using cloud services without strong identity controls are carrying more risk than many of them realize.
The top three targeted sectors globally were manufacturing at 1,284 confirmed victims, business services at 824, and retail at 682. In Canada specifically, hospitals and physician clinics ranked as the number one target for credential-based cloud attacks, alongside retail establishments.
For Canadian IT teams managing infrastructure in healthcare, financial services, government, or any organization handling regulated data under PIPEDA, the Canada ransomware 2026 risk profile is elevated. These sectors hold high-value data and often run lean IT departments, which is exactly the combination ransomware operators are targeting.
Small and mid-sized Canadian businesses are not below the radar. Ransomware operators actively target organizations with less mature security postures, and SMBs managing their own Fortinet infrastructure without current licensing or firmware are carrying unnecessary exposure.
The Canada ransomware 2026 threat landscape has direct implications for how organizations manage their Fortinet infrastructure. Attackers are exploiting vulnerabilities within 24 to 48 hours of disclosure. If your FortiGate firmware is outdated or your FortiGuard licenses have lapsed, that window is the difference between a protected network and an exposed one.
An active FortiGate license keeps your threat intelligence current. FortiGuard services push updated antivirus signatures, IPS rules, URL filtering data, and DNS filtering to your firewall in real time. When a license lapses, those updates stop. Your firewall continues to enforce existing rules, but it stops learning about new threats the moment expiry occurs. In a threat environment where new exploits are being weaponized within hours, running on stale threat intelligence is a risk that is difficult to justify.
Firmware currency matters more than it did a year ago. Fortinet releases firmware updates to address newly discovered vulnerabilities across FortiGate, FortiSwitch, and FortiAP devices. With attackers operating at AI-accelerated speed, staying current on firmware is a basic control with outsized impact.
Network visibility is no longer optional. 82 percent of Canadian organizations experienced a breach last year. Many of those had perimeter security in place. The gap was visibility into what was happening inside the network. FortiAnalyzer provides centralized logging and real-time analytics for organizations running Fortinet infrastructure, giving IT teams the ability to detect anomalous behavior before it becomes a confirmed incident.
If you are unsure where your organization stands against the Canada ransomware 2026 threat, DataCenter360 can walk you through a Fortinet license and firmware review at no obligation.
Based on the findings across Fortinet’s 2026 reports, here are three immediate steps worth prioritizing.
Check your FortiGate license expiry dates. Log into the Fortinet Support Portal at support.fortinet.com, navigate to Asset Management, and confirm the expiry date on every registered device. If any license is within 60 days of expiry, start the renewal conversation now. Most authorized Canadian Fortinet partners can return a renewal quote the same business day.
Audit your firmware versions. Log into your FortiGate and check the current firmware version against Fortinet’s latest recommended release for your hardware model. If you are more than one major version behind, schedule an update. Your Fortinet partner can advise on the correct update path for your specific device.
Review admin credentials and access controls. The Canada ransomware 2026 data shows most cloud breaches originated from compromised credentials. Confirm who has administrative access to your Fortinet infrastructure, verify that default credentials have been changed across all devices, and consider whether multi-factor authentication is in place for admin accounts.
Fortinet’s Canada ransomware 2026 reports point to a combination of factors: a documented cybersecurity skills shortage, high-value data concentrated in targeted sectors like healthcare and financial services, and the rapid adoption of AI-powered attack tools by cybercriminals. Canada’s 374 confirmed ransomware victims in 2025 place it second only to the United States globally.
The hardware continues to function and enforce its existing security policies, but all FortiGuard threat intelligence updates stop at the moment of expiry. That means no new antivirus signatures, no updated IPS rules, and no URL or DNS filtering updates. In a threat environment where new exploits are being weaponized within 24 to 48 hours of disclosure, a firewall running on outdated threat intelligence provides significantly reduced protection.
Most authorized Canadian Fortinet partners can provide a renewal quote the same business day for standard FortiGate models. Processing the renewal itself typically takes one to two business days. If a license has already lapsed, renewal is still possible and FortiGuard services resume once the new license is activated.
Yes. Ransomware operators increasingly target SMBs because they often operate with less mature security postures than enterprise organizations. The 82 percent breach rate reported among Canadian organizations in Fortinet’s 2026 Skills Gap Report spans organizations of all sizes. Canadian small businesses managing their own Fortinet infrastructure are not operating below the radar of these threat actors.
DataCenter360 is a Toronto-based Fortinet Select Partner and MSSP serving Canadian businesses coast to coast. If your organization wants to review its current Fortinet license status, firmware currency, or overall security posture in light of the Canada ransomware 2026 findings, contact us directly at [email protected] or visit datacenter360.ca/contact-us. Most renewal quotes are returned the same business day. You work with a certified Fortinet professional from the first conversation.